"A household located in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention in the news, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of early scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who express similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He noted that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
